First-year Fayetteville FireAntz coach Mark DeSantis has led team to next level

Thomas Pope Sports editor

Thursday

Mar 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Kevin MacNaught, the president of the Fayetteville FireAntz, was on his way to the airport to fetch a coaching candidate when a colleague sent him a text message.

"You don't need to look any further - that will be your guy."

That comment was in reference to Mark DeSantis, and what he has accomplished since MacNaught hired him to lead the Southern Professional Hockey League team has been nothing short of spectacular. DeSantis, keeping only four holdovers from last year's cellar-dwelling team, assembled a roster whose players captured the SPHL regular-season crown on the final day. Tonight, the FireAntz host Game 2 of their first-round President's Cup playoff duel against Huntsville at 7:30.

DeSantis brought to the job nearly 1,100 games of experience as a career minor league defenseman and three years as an assistant coach under Joe Ferras in Rapid City, S.D., in the Central Hockey League.

MacNaught had interviewed DeSantis for the same opening the year before, but DeSantis decided it wasn't the right move at the time. Last summer, his perspective had changed.

"I knew if there was a job available, I was going after it," said DeSantis, a native of Brampton, Ontario.

Running the numbers

As an assistant, DeSantis offered input and had a well-defined role. In Fayetteville, everything falls on his plate, from teaching the intricacies for improving footwork to managing a roster with a league salary cap.

"At the end of the day, they're all my decisions, which I've kind of enjoyed," he said. "If I make the wrong decision, it's on me. If I make the right decision, it's on me - and so far, so good. I think I've done the right job in what works for this team."

There's certainly evidence to support that.

The FireAntz won more regular-season games, 35, than any team in the league. They scored the most goals, assists and points. They allowed the third-fewest goals, and were four games over .500 as a visiting team.

Derek Elliott and Mike Kavanagh made the SPHL All-Rookie team and another first-year player, John Clewlow, scored 20 points and 20 assists.

Josh McQuade led the league in goals and scoring, and he and Andrew Smale could be among the members of the All-SPHL teams that will be announced Thursday.

Smale and McQuade are contenders for league honors as the best defenseman and most valuable player, respectively.

And DeSantis will certainly receive votes for his role in orchestrating the reversal of the franchise's fortunes.

Extended career

Last summer, Smale was ready to retire after six seasons as a player in the CHL. The last two years were spent with the Rapid City Rush, and his positive experience with DeSantis was a big reason he decided to postpone retirement for one more season.

"I thought I was done, but now I'm glad Mark gave me a call," Smale said.

Smale said he's happy to see how well DeSantis has made the transition to a head coaching job, but he's not surprised.

"As an assistant, you're buying into what the head coach is saying. Now everything thing falls on him, and he's doing jobs he might not have done before, like player moves. He had input before, but now it's his decision," Smale said. "As you can see, he was well-prepared for it. We started off hot and finished in first."

Bobby Reed, one of the four players DeSantis retained from the 2011-12 season, had the same impression of his coach that MacNaught did, and he posted career-best numbers in goals, assists and points in the regular season under DeSantis.

"He's very intense, very knowledgable of the game, and I like how he loves and appreciates the game," said Reed, the team's captain.

"I already knew that he was a quality person and coach just from knowing his resume, the people who played with him or for him, the coaches he played for. ... I knew a couple of guys that had played for him as a coach in Rapid City - guys I went to school with - and everything they said about him, it was all true."

Building a winner

The SPHL limits each team to three players it deems as "veterans" based on the number of games they've played as professionals. Reed is one, Smale is another, and the third is goalie Marco Emond, whom DeSantis saw earn three CHL championship rings.

The other FireAntz holdovers were McQuade, Kyle McNeil and defenseman Kyle Frieday, a converted forward.

To those, DeSantis added more than a handful of talented rookies, including Clewlow, Kavanagh and Elliott. Ben Contini scored 33 points, and Brian Elser and Justin Faryna were called up to higher leagues. Brandon Richardson, like McQuade a second-year pro, contributed 42 points.

Reaching out

That kind of production from young players, DeSantis said, was simply the result of hard networking.

"It's cold calling, it's calling coaches and finding out about each one of these players, or having connections who recommend a player that they can't keep for whatever reason," DeSantis said.

"Like Johnny Clewlow. His coach at Elmira (College) told me, 'You'll love him. He'll be the fastest guy in the league and he'll work hard,' " DeSantis said. "He scored 20 goals as a rookie. I don't care who you are, that's unbelievable for a first-year player. ...

"I talked to Sawyer in the summer about coming here, but he had set his mind on playing at the next level. I just told him that if things didn't work out, I'd still like to have him. And when it didn't work out at Rapid, my connection to Joe paid off. He told him, 'Hey, Brock, I don't know what your plans are, but Mark's worked under me. You go to Fayetteville, you'll learn there.' "

One of DeSantis' biggest challenges was to ensure that he signed what he calls "character guys." He wanted players he could count on to keep a positive attitude when times got tough, and those with a team-first mentality - attributes that were lacking in the locker room the past two seasons, Reed said.

"From Day 1, I've never had a doubt about him as a person or a coach," Reed said. "Just the way he carries himself, the way he speaks, the passion in his eyes when he talks - you can tell that he cares. We've never doubted anything he's tried to instill in us. As competitors, you're going to ask questions, yeah, but he wants us to ask and challenge him, and that makes you a better player and person."

Sports editor Thomas Pope can be reached at popet@fayobserver.com or 486-3520.

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